‘The only sense the world has ever made’ … In one of the band’s best romantic moments Garvey decides to capture the perfect moment with another person by just switching off right now. But just talking with... 3. Set in his beloved Manchester, ‘Jesus is a Rochdale Girl’ is a low-key, beautiful trip into domestic life in the city and the highly personal stories within it. Elbow love to kick things off with a bang on their lead singles (think: “Grounds for Divorce” or “Neat Little Rows”), and the first taste of 2019’s Giants of All Sizes was no exception. The state of beauty is a highly subjective one. “I’ll be the corpse in your bathtub/Useless” – ‘Newborn’ (Asleep In The Back, 2001). ‘Send up a prayer in my name’ … Sometimes one moment can change a song and lift him up on the next level. An easy floating and reduced piece that feels like a warm summer breeze. One of Garvey’s less florid, wordy songs, this simple number still cuts deep. Proof that he isn’t just a dab hand at lyrics dealing with romantic love, but with meditative tales that focus on memory too. “Disjointed tales’/That flit between short trousers/And a full dress uniform” – ‘Scattered Black and Whites’ (Asleep In The Back, 2001). It’s safe to say that we can all agree to actually not agree. Describing the feeling of being madly in love with a woman who doesn’t love him back, Garvey details every thought running through his head when he meets up with her at her office: “At the top is stopping by / Your place of work and acting like / I haven’t dreamed of you and I / And marriage in an orange grove / You are the only thing in any room you’re ever in / I’m stubborn, selfish and too old.” But just talking with her is all he needs (“Sit with me awhile and let me listen to you talk about / Your dreams and your obsessions / I’ll be quiet and confessional”) as he tries to make sense of his thoughts even if he suffers from low self-esteem (“So yes I guess I’m asking you to back a horse that’s good for glue and nothing else / But find a man that’s truer than / Find a man who needs you more than I”). Garvey dares a visit. This track marked the band’s first ever national radio play, three years before the release of their debut album, on John Peel’s Radio 1 show. In 15 words he manages to conjure up a full-bodied vision of not just his ex, but the weather, the mood and the overarching importance of this hastily smoked joint. As clever as Nick Cave, as heartfelt as the late Scott Hutchison and as able to write as many emotional crescendos as Sigur Rós, Garvey’s in a league of his own. One that combines everyday elements with a certain lyrical beauty. “Kiss me like a final meal/Yeah, kiss me like we die tonight” – ‘One Day Like This’ (The Seldom Seen Kid, 2008). Elbow Song list. Life might not be easier when you’re a kid but you are definitely far less limited. It’s an epic plea for love and the power of it. Not the best, not the catchiest, just the most beautiful ones. And it’s no wonder Elbow are superstars in their native U.K., where they won the prestigious Mercury Prize in 2008 for their near-perfect The Seldom Seen Kid (they’ve been nominated two other times as well), and performed in the Closing Ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics. 18 – San Diego, Calif. @ House of Blues No one can sell a line quite like Guy Garvey. A gentle piano-driven, dreamy ballad that themes around past and nostalgia. ‘I drink until the doorman is a Christmas tree’ … One feeling that singer Guy Garvey always manages to transport is like he’s the perfect man to have a drink with. They also remain festival heavyweights 20-plus years into their career: If you ever get the chance to see them at Glastonbury or some other British festival, you’ll understand. Where else could a line like ‘Stockport supporters club kindly supplied us a choir’ work within such a highly emotional piece? Garvey reminisces about what was most important during his first foray into young adulthood (“And Jesus is a Rochdale girl / And forty-five CDs / Got a house that you can smoke in / So all my friends found me”). The title, which comes from a line in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (“Come, let’s have one other gaudy night / Call to me all my sad captains / Fill our bowls / Once more, let’s mock the midnight bell”), depicts drinking and pub culture in a positive light, illustrating the fun nights instead of the hungover mornings. The songs that make you shiver and fall down to your knees. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. And their upcoming seventh album Little Fictions – out on February the 3rd – is another proof of it. The buzzing newcomers deliver a catchy argument for the timelessness of British guitar music. Don't miss their new single "I See Your Ghost" on top of our newcomer playlist, along with exciting new picks by HighSchool, Joni, Laura Fell, Luca Wilding, Villa Rivercat and more. Having the Glastonbury audience sing on your song? “Dexter & Sinister,” which clocks in just over seven minutes, is a tour de force that showcases everything we love about the Manchester band’s heavier side in a single track. If there’s such a thing like uplifting melancholia, it an be found in this track. All Rights Reserved, that other big British piano pop-rock band. One of the stickier, uglier ones. “I’m proud to be the one you hold when the shakes begin/Sallow-skinned, starry-eyed/Blessed in our sin” – ‘Powder Blue’ (Asleep In The Back, 2001). The 10 Best Elbow Songs 1. “It got me into the musicality of words.” It’s a nigh on impossible task, but we’ve done our best to round up his 10 best lyrics. … Even in black and white. It’s no wonder they were asked to perform it when the athletes returned to London’s Olympic Stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony: It’s one of those songs. Swelling strings and swirling synths build up to a fever pitch before guitarist Mark Potter tears it all down with a punishing, bluesy guitar riff that recalls both of the aforementioned songs. It’s no wonder this was the song that soundtracked a marriage proposal when Elbow played Manhattan’s Webster Hall in 2014. Not afraid of making people sit up and take notice, this otherwise sentimental song stuck out of the crowd thanks to its alarming imagery. Take “Mirrorball” from The Seldom Seen Kid: “We took the town to town last night / We kissed like we invented it” is about as cliché as it gets in the hands of any other singer, but it works perfectly here, as Garvey describes the morning after a life-changing first date. “Starlings,” the lead track on 2008’s The Seldom Seen Kid, is Garvey’s finest moment as a lyricist. Garvey, angry as ever, tells the story of an alcoholic drinking himself into a stupor on a weeknight: “Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid.” But even when describing the downtrodden, Garvey still finds a way to incorporate beautiful phrases, depicting the protagonist’s inability to stay away from the local pub (“There’s a hole in my neighborhood / Down which of late I cannot help but fall”) and fix his relationship (“And I’d bring you further roses, but it does you no good”). It’s their “Hey Jude,” their “Bittersweet Symphony,” their “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” It’s that song you can’t help but sing along to live, and forget everything else in the world. But instead of harping on the “single heartbreak” and a relatively dire financial situation, he remains optimistic for the future, not yet allowing himself to define his life by what he has and doesn’t have: “And nothing to be proud of / And nothing to regret / All of that to make as yet.” It’s perhaps the most poetic thing Elbow has released to date—a beautiful and unadorned track that doesn’t try to be more than the sum of its parts, yet ends up becoming so much more on repeated reads of the lyrics. Even if it was just the second LP of the band, Cast Of Thousands, you can already sense that they were destined for higher goals. The musical diamonds off the band’s first six  albums – find them right here. Don't worry, NBHAP's editors can help you with that. Elbow approach “My Sad Captains,” a song dedicated to drinking buddies who have since moved away, passed away or stopped drinking, as a slow, mournful tune that laments the loss of late drunken nights and camaraderie. In the case of ELBOW‘s ballad of the tower crane driver the slow build up itself is already magical. “Starlings”. And just in case you’re not familiar with the lads around unique vocalist Guy Garvey – it’s never too late. But the decision still keeps him up at night, and he still loves her: “But I love the bones of you / That I will never escape.” And it all comes crumbling down with a somber horn solo that references George Gershwin’s “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. Addressing the scourge of Brexit and a string of deaths that affected the band (including Garvey’s own father), there’s a certain rage in his voice that’s relatively unheard throughout their discography. The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. While they’re more known for grand, mid-tempo ballads, Elbow occasionally decide to turn up the volume knobs and rock out. Pure perfection. ‘Do they know those days are golden?’ … Gentle Garvey on a pattern of symphonic strings, combined with a sentimental message. “If I loose a sequin here and there/More salt than pepper in my hair/Can I rely on you when all the songs are through/To be for me the everthere?” – ‘The Everthere’ (Leaders Of The Free World, 2005). But what to listen to from the sheer endless sea of new records? A perfect song on a perfect album: “One Day Like This” is one of those life-affirming, epic... 2. Every line in this song is quotable, and every word is of utmost importance. ‘Spitfire thin and strung like a violin’ … pretty often the words of Garvey are pure poetry. A chord change maybe. The British group did become an institution for beautiful sounds, gentle melodies and heart wrenching lyrics. ‘Great big sky down to the ground’ … This gentle b-side from the band’s 2011 single Open Arms really is a hidden treasure within ELBOW‘s discography. An appreciator of the craft as well as one of its main modern talents, his moving, witty and chest-swelling lyrics are influenced by the likes of 20th century American poet Robert Frost. With a slow horn section mimicking the central melody, Garvey croons one of his best-ever choruses: “Another sunrise with my sad captains / With who I choose to lose my mind / And if it’s so we only pass this way but once / What a perfect waste of time.”. Like this imagined affair with an unknown lady. Once—maybe twice—an album, the Manchester band will lose the orchestra and acoustic guitar and just go for it, something they do best on “Grounds for Divorce,” the lead single on The Seldom Seen Kid. A particularly Garv-ian take on romance, this slow-burning ballad sees him imploring his lover to stay with him, even when he’s old and a bit bonkers. by Norman Fleischer. Even though Elbow are always dodging comparisons to that other big British piano pop-rock band, they’re truly one of a kind. Much of their popularity can be traced back to Garvey himself: Dubbed “pop’s everyman hero” and always one of the nicest guys around, he’s magnetic, lovely, wise, romantic and bubbly—everything you’d want from the friend you meet at the pub for a few pints. And after all these years it’s still okay. 21 – Santa Ana, Calif. @ The Observatory, © 2020 Paste Media Group. His husky, warm baritone can transform even the corniest of lines into grand statements that ring with more importance than the most profound lyric by virtually anyone else. As NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION is always eager to convince you to discover great music we selected the ten most impressive and heart-wrenching songs by ELBOW. “Station Approach”. “The neon is graffiti singing make a new start/So I look for a plot where I can bury my broken heart” – ‘Forget Myself’ (Leaders Of The Free World, 2005). All Disco (2017) An Audience With The Pope (2008) Any Day Now (2001) Asleep In The Back (2001) Bitten By The Tailfly (2001) Charge (2014) Colour Fields (2014) Coming Second (2001) Grace Under Pressure’ (2003) ‘We still believe in love so fuck you’ … It can’t get any better than this. Screw you if you dare to disagree. Sometimes it’s important to remind ourselves of this.